/**
 * File PrefixTree.java
 * ---------------------------------------------------------
 *
 * Copyright (C) 2012 David Bauske (david.bauske@googlemail.com)
 *
 * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
 * to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
 * and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
 *
 * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
 *
 * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
 * WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
 */
package net.cl.util.collections;

import java.util.List;

/**
 * Base interface for a prefix tree. Prefix trees are used to search for (starts of )
 * terms. The Result of a search is a list of the matched values. Prefix trees are very
 * costly to build, so once they are fully constructed, a Prefix tree can't be altered
 * any more.
 *
 * @author David Bauske
 * @param <E> The elements type which is stored in here.
 */
public interface PrefixTree<E>
{
	/**
	 * Searches the tree, returning the matched elements in a list.
	 * @param pInput The input string to search the tree for.
	 * @return A list of matched elements. If no elements are matched, an empty list
	 * 		is returned.
	 */
	public List<E> search(String pInput);
}
